Photo Friday

It was taken in 1974 up near the China border in Sheung Shui, Hong Kong. The train ran to the Lowu border at that time, but it was a fairly recent development because for years it didn’t. Something about the Cultural Revolution (which was still going on in 1974).

It’s almost impossible to see here, but the Kowloon-Canton Railway at that time used diesel-hauled passenger trains that chugged up from the old terminus in Tsim Sha Tsui, just across from the Peninsula Hotel. It must have taken my grandparents half a day to reach Sheung Shui.

They were in Hong Kong on vacation then. In total, they visited Hong Kong seven or eight times from 1965 to 1982.

I was no stranger to Sheung Shui in the 1990s, but by then it was built up with high-rise apartment blocks, a town hall, shopping malls, and a faster train.

I am pretty sure it’s facing north. In another photo, some school kids are exiting the train. I assume they didn’t go to school north of Sheung Shui. I also envision my grandparents taking photos as soon as they arrived in Sheung Shui, right after they got off the train.